Budapest

Every year we take a ‘girls trip’ to a different European city and this year it was Budapest. I’ve never visited Hungary before, so I felt I was embarking on a real adventure. The flight took just over 2 hours, so it is easily manageable for a long weekend, with a 40 minute transfer into the city. Our hotel was perfectly placed on the Buda side of the River Danube, close to one of the many bridges which gave us great access to the busy, more cosmopolitan Pest. We orientated ourselves with an open top bus tour of the city, taking in many major sites and districts on both sides of the Danube. The weather was glorious, so that was followed by the obligatory cruise on the Danube with English commentary.

We visited Buda Castle, set on the side of Castle Hill offering fantastic views over the river to Pest. Originally the seat of former Hungarian Kings it now houses a castle museum and art gallery. You pay for entry to these, however it is free to walk around the outside.

Szentendre is a small town approximately 30 minutes outside of the city, known for its many craft and souvenir shops. It’s a really pretty town with cobbled streets, pretty shops and houses. An added bonus is it’s largely traffic free, which made it so much more comfortable to walk around.

We visited the Danube Palace one evening to see a Hungarian Folklore Show, where we enjoyed 1½ hours of music and (very energetic) dancing. The dancers wore different costumes for each dance and these were a spectacle in themselves!

Budapest is not a huge city and we were able to see everything we wanted to in our 3 days. It is very clean, tidy (streets, hotels, restaurants) and reasonably priced. I did sample Goulash Soup served in a small loaf and it was delicious. Although there was an abundance of Hungarian food, beyond the goulash it wasn’t to my taste, however we were never short of somewhere good to eat. I would thoroughly recommend for a short break if you’re looking for somewhere very reasonable and a little different.